The present invention concerns the production of electrical accumulators or batteries. More specifically, it concerns the production of electrode sets or series comprising the casting of connector bars onto the electrodes that are of the same kind and belong to the same cell. The invention also concerns apparatus for the execution of the process.
In connection with the production of electrical accumulators, the electrodes which are to be present in a cell are collected together with the separating electrodes or isolating separators to form one electrode series.
Electrodes of the same type in each electrode series are then combined with one another by a connector bar. This bar can be produced in different ways and is placed in the cell vessel either before the electrodes or after them. Furthermore, electrodes of one type in a cell are to be connected with electrodes of another type in an adjoining cell. This combining can be effected simultaneously with the connector bars or in a subsequent operation. Several procedures and equipment are known, either separately or in combination with cell connectors. Such equipment is provided with one or several cassettes, each of which can receive all the electrode series belonging to one battery and provide the latter with connector bars.
The equipment has been developed according to two principles, either with a cassette moving forward and back, which runs along a linear course, or else a type of revolving device, where each device is equipped with a number of arms, each one of which has one or several cassettes. In the former case, a relatively low production capacity is obtained, and in the latter case the constructions are complicated, as the arms of the carousel must be able to rotate about their longitudinal axes.
It is, therefore, an object of the present invention to minimize or eliminate problems of the type mentioned above.
It is another object of the present invention to provide novel methods and apparatus for producing electric accumulators.
It is a further object of the invention to provide such apparatus which receives the electrode series, carries out a possibly necessary fluxing treatment of the terminals of the electrodes, casts or fuses connector bars on the electrode series, and then places these in the battery container.
A further object of the invention is to provide a system having the same production capacity as the best techniques and equipment now known, but involving a mechanically simpler construction and requiring only slight manual service.
Another object is to provide apparatus which is flexible in its utility so that its capacity can be increased, if necessary.